Hear Here: Life lessons from Rutka Messinger

Rutka Messinger is a retired high school literature teacher living in San Francisco’s Richmond District. But, she wasn’t born here. She was actually born in a concentration camp in Siberia at the tail end of World War II. Both her parents survived the Holocaust. Soon after Messinger was born they fled the camp and began what she calls a long and complicated story. Her family ended up in Israel, where she lived until moving to the United States.

Here, Messinger says she sees beauty all around her – especially in her neighborhood. And she says if you look for good things, you’ll see them, too.

For about a year and a half now, KALW has been popping into the 81st Avenue East Oakland library to record the stories of the people who live and work in the neighborhood. Today we meet the man who helps make the library a safe and valuable place for the community, Anthony Propernick.